Candidate for the Presidency of the International Electrotechnical Commission 2029-2031
vimal@mahendru.net | www.mahendru.net | Elections in October 2027, Singapore
By consensus, sustainable electricity, electronics and digital systems for all
Products and systems built to IEC standards serve 99% of humanity, from a village’s first microgrid to a continent-wide smart grid. New bodies are being proposed for artificial intelligence. IEC and ISO have been writing those standards together since 2017. We must be faster, and we must listen.
Trust:
Earned every day, with members, regulators, industry and the people whose safety we protect.
Inclusion:
IEC must serve all, regardless of region, domain or market. When a member cannot take part, the standard is weaker. Each country must see in IEC a partner that knows its needs.
Balance:
Listening with equal care to full members, associate members and affiliate countries, and turning what we hear into one consensus.
Delivering faster:
Renewables, storage, smart grids, EV charging, semiconductors, quantum, and clean data centres need standards sooner than we produce them. Where innovation begins in consortia, IEC must make it the consensus of 170 countries. With the Board, SMB, CAB and MSB, I will press to shorten cycles and cut procedural steps. Drafting, commenting and voting belong online, with content SMART from the start. Our experts can contribute from anywhere, in their own time.
Advancing digital transformation:
SMART Standards turn IEC’s publications into data that machines read. AI shapes our work in four ways: AI for standardization, standards for AI, electricity for AI and AI-enabled use of standards. Many National Committees, and IEC, depend on publication sales. Digitalization must pay for itself, and I will seek Board consensus on the business model.
Building trust:
Consensus earns trust, and trust enables trade across borders. Our four conformity assessment systems, IECEE, IECEx, IECQ and IECRE, prove it: one test, one certificate, many markets. I will advocate for IEC with regulators, multilateral agencies, ISO, ITU and regional bodies, so our standards and certificates enter national and regional frameworks. More than 220 committees and all four systems already serve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Twelve years in IEC. I am Vice-President and SMB Chair. I ran and oversaw manufacturing for 33 years at IndoAsian and Legrand India. I know what industry needs from a standard, and what it costs to conform. As founding Chair of the Systems Committee on Low Voltage Direct Current, I led the development of IEC 63318, the first international standard for rural electrification. It began in villages I visited with no electricity and no hope of it. This brought me the Lord Kelvin Award in 2022.
I started the SMB’s work on what IEC must be in 2040, and on changing our processes and structures to get there. Today’s young professionals will lead IEC by then, and they must shape it. My ISO counterpart and I led the boards to the first alignment of our Directives.
My working life has run through economies at every stage of development. I will bring every voice into one consensus and represent every member equally, above any country, region or group. Tell me what your National Committee needs, and I will work on it with the teams who run IEC.
IEC’s purpose is the all-electric, connected and sustainable society.
No country can build it alone. Together, we will.
